The best of Prog rock

Friday, February 27, 2015

If you’re one of the 70% of cell-phone users who use
text messaging, you know that C U L8R means “See you later.”

“Texting” is now the new way to talk (or “tlk”),
especially for young people. But why is that?

IT’S A LOVE THING – There’s no doubt about it, text
messages are for personal communication. Only 10% of messages are work related,
and the peak hours for texting are between 10:30 and 11:00 at night!

Most users (64%) say texting is a good way to send
romantic messages – it’s easier to say “I love you” in a text message than in a
phone call. Maybe that explains why more people now use texting to send
Valentine’s Day messages.

UPSIDES AND DOWNSIDES – Generally, texting is cheaper
than making phone calls. It’s also more direct, since you can send or get
information without having to ask and answer polite “How are you?” questions.

And it’s more discreet, too. No one can hear your
“conversations,” and you can receive text messages almost anywhere – at work,
in meetings, or in class. You can also use texting in noisy places like
nightclubs, where using a cell phone is difficult.

A NEW LANGUAGE? – Because it’s quicker to “write”
without apostrophes and vowels, texting has its own language. And it’s fun to
use the symbols. There’s a best-selling dictionary (or “dxnre”) for texting
called Wan2tlk?

Some people say that a texting encourages bad
punctuation and spelling. On the other hand, more teens are writing than ever
before. Now, that has to be a good thing.

As 75-year-old villager Antônio Gomes told us
stories of growing up in Boca do Mamirauá, a tiny settlement in the northern
Amazon rainforest, I tried to ignore the tiny blue flies biting through my
trousers.

Despite my interest in hearing how locals
survive in this remote part of the Brazilian rainforest, now a part of the
Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, I was grateful to escape when he
finished, finding refuge in one of the tall wooden houses.

(When the Amazon floods, all of its residents – both animals and people
– have to adopt an amphibious lifestyle. Kim Schandorff/Getty)

The houses hover some 3m above the ground.
They are not unusual: almost everything in the Mamirauá reserve is on stilts,
even the chicken coop. It has to be. Although much of Brazil is currently
suffering one of the worst droughts in decades, this part of the Amazon is
almost completely flooded for the six-month wet season. By April, the end of
the rainy season, the river rises up to 10m high and overflows its banks. As a
result, all living things in the forest, including locals, must adopt an
amphibious lifestyle. Even the jaguars have learned to adapt by living in tree
branches when the floods arrive.

Only 1,000 tourists per year are allowed to
visit Mamirauá, which, at 57,000sqkm, is the largest wildlife reserve in the
country. Created in 1984 to save the once-endangered uakari monkey, the reserve
is the most carefully managed and protected part of the Amazon – and is also
home to what many consider Brazil’s most successful sustainable tourist resort,
the Uakari Floating Lodge. “If [the reserve] had not been created,” guide
Francisco Nogeuira said, “the rivers and lakes would be empty of fish, and who
knows how many trees would remain today?”

The capital of the French republic is better
known for beheading monarchs than celebrating them. But Paris went wild for
Britain’s queen during her state visit last week. Crowds on the Champs-Elysées
cheered as her royal convoy drove past. Socialist ministers lined up
enthusiastically to greet her at her birthday garden party.

The queen’s arrival at the international
ceremony on “Sword” beach to remember the 70th anniversary of D-Day drew louder
applause than that of America’s president. Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of
Paris, even had a flower market named after her on the capital’s Ile de la
Cité, which happens to be home to the Conciergerie prison where
Marie-Antoinette was held before being carted to the guillotine in 1793. “The
queen of the French” ran a headline in Le Monde, a left-wing daily.

Why are the French so smitten by the world’s
longest-reigning queen?

Partly because she embodies the post-war era
in which their modern republic was born: she was crowned in 1953 and has known all
seven presidents of the Fifth Republic. Her affection for France, and grasp of
the language, also help. […] After a state dinner at the Elyzée Palace, with
François Hollande, the president, she spoke of her “grande affection” for the French people. This was the queen’s fifth
state visit to the republic.

Another reason is that the French, shorn of
their own monarchy, have long become avid voyeurs of everybody else’s. Point de vue and Paris-Match, two magazines that splash photos of royals across
their pages, were launched back in the 1940s. The French turned the Monaco
royals into celebrities before reality television invented instant fame for
everybody else. In 2011 the French cleared the airwaves to cover Prince
William’s wedding on live public television; 9m viewers tuned in to watch.

Perhaps the hidden reason for French royal
fervour, though, is a secret envy mixed with regret. Mr Hollande, stuck with a
16% popularity rating, is said to have noted wryly how refreshing it was to
hear cheering crowds when he accompanied the queen. Asked in a poll what they
thought today of the execution of Louis XVI in 1793, more of the French (29%)
judged it “unfair” than “understandable” (23%). The French “have a royalty
complex”, wrote Hervé Gattegno in Le Point, and have built their republic on monarchical traditions
as if to compensate. The president, who has more sweeping powers than almost
any other modern democratic leader, is fussed over by much pomp and
splendour—and the seat of the presidency is a palace.

(In: The French
and monarchy. The Economist, vol. 411, number 8891. June, 14th 2014. Adaptado)

11.
Considering both theme and gender of the text, more information could be added
to the title, as a subheading.

15. The
sentences: “Marie-Antoinette
was held …”; “Point de vue and Paris-Match […] were
launched back in the 1940s; “she was crowned in
1953…”, and “The president […] is fussed over by
much pomp and splendour” are all in the

a)
Imperative Form. d)
Present Perfect.

b)
Conditional Tense. e)
Past Perfect Continuous.

c)
Passive Voice.

16. Na
frase “The capital of
the French republic is better known for beheading monarchs than
celebrating them.”, a palavra em destaque significa

a) decapitar. d)
depor.

b) debochar. e) destronar.

c) deportar.

Text 6

Women in the rodeo

Disponível em:
http://allenrussell.photoshelter.com/image

In the huge, open lands of the American west,
herding cattle is one way to make a living. The image of the cowboy on his
horse is a familiar one, ……………… in reality, women also participate in ranch
work. This reality can be seen in the rodeo, …………. cowboys and cowgirls compete
in roping young steer, and riding adult bulls. Throwing a rope around a steer
is something ranchers must do ………………….. give the young animals medicine or to
mark the steers as their property. ……………….., riding on the back of a large and angry
bull is purely for sport – a brutal and dangerous sport. ……………….., the danger
doesn’t stop the men and women who love the rodeo.”

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

West Africa is experiencing the biggest outbreak of
the Ebola virus ever known, causing thousands of deaths, devastating fragile
healthcare systems and damaging the economies of countries, some of which are
still recovering from civil war. Infections are thought to be doubling every few
weeks. The World Health Organization (WHO) says there were 13,700 officially registered
cases by the end of October, almost all in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea,
with about 5,000 deaths, but many go unrecorded and the true figure is thought
to be two to three times higher. The US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) says
that if nothing changes there could be 1.4 million cases by late January.

The WHO has been criticized for not reacting fast enough
to the outbreak: it took three months to diagnose the first cases, and five
months more before a public health emergency was declared. The exceptional
spread of the disease was probably down to a number of factors including
dysfunctional health systems, high population mobility across state
borders, densely populated capitals and lack of trust in authorities after
years of armed conflict meaning health advice is not heeded. Fear is also a factor.
People are afraid to go to hospital because they think it may be the source of
infection.

Healthcare in the region was fragile before Ebola. Now
there is disintegration as staff become ill or stay away for fear of the
disease. Infection control and hygiene are major issues. Soap and water
are unavailable in some areas. Alcohol hand rubs are needed on a large scale. Isolation
facilities are vital to contain Ebola, as are labs for testing because rapid
diagnosis is very important. Both are in very short supply. In some places,
isolation is nothing more than an area behind a curtain. People with other
diseases and women in childbirth are at risk because hospitals are no longer
functioning properly.

The
Guardian, Oct. 31, 2014. Access on: Nov. 25, 2014. [Adapted]

1. According to the text,
it is correctto affirm that

a) the Ebola crisis is
global.

b) the Ebola crisis has
killed 13,700 people.

c) Ebola is a virus
transmitted to humans from animals.

d) Ebola has reached all
Africa, Spain and the USA.

e) the Ebola crisis has
reached some African countries.

2. According to the text,
it is correctto affirm that

a) bad healthcare
conditions in some African countries are not related to the Ebola crisis.

b) hygiene is not a problem
because they use alcohol for large scale disinfection.

c) authorities have been
quick to diagnose cases and set emergency procedures.

d) the Ebola crisis in some
African countries is related to wars and economy.

e) civil war and other
armed conflicts have made people afraid to go to hospital.

3. According to the text,
the Ebola crisis is caused

a) due to constant civil
wars which made the countries poor and the population vulnerable.

b) because people do not
trust the governments and healthcare systems are bad.

c) by poor hygiene
conditions and high population mobility to the capitals.

d) because the governments
took 5 months to diagnose the cases and inform the population.

e) by a virus that came
from Spain and infected poor areas in Africa.

4. About the first sentence
of the text, it is correct to affirm that

a) the word “Ebola” is the
subject of the sentence.

b) all clauses are in the
present continuous tense.

c) the adjective “biggest”
is in the comparative form.

d) the word “ever” is an
auxiliary verb.

e) the word “still”
indicates consequence.

Text 02

“The media seems to treat epidemics differently, depending
on where they occur, and to whom. I think unfortunately, in the Western media,
there are first-world diseases and third-world diseases, and the attention devoted
to the latter depends on the threat they pose to us, not on a universal measure
of human suffering. A death in Africa or Asia should be as tragic as a death in
Europe or the USA, and it doesn’t seem to be. If an epidemic breaks out in the
USA or Europe, suddenly the reporting is more engaged. I would like to hear
from the people who are affected everywhere. I would like to feel that everyone’s
voices are more equally heard, even if they speak a language that is not mine.”

CARRILHO,
André. The Huffington Post. Available on:

.
Access on: Nov. 22, 2014. [Adapted]

5. According to André Carrilho’s
opinion,

a) European and American
media has treated the Ebola crisis with humor.

b) the Ebola crisis has not
caught Western media’s attention yet.

c) media coverage on
epidemics depends on where it happens and who it affects.

d) Western media only cares
about what happens in Europe and Asia.

e) first-world and
third-world diseases are equally treated by American media.

6. In Carrilho’s point of
view,

a) there are important differences
between first-world diseases and third-world diseases.

b) if epidemics like Ebola
occur in the USA, the media must treat it differently.

c) people from Africa and
Asia do not have access to good media coverage of the Ebola crisis.

d) media has only paid attention
to Ebola because white Western people began to be affected.

e) death cases in Africa and
Asia are less important than in America and Europe.

Analyze the extract from the text:

“I would like to hear from the people who are affected
everywhere. I would like to feel that everyone’s voices are more equally heard,
even if they speak a language that is not mine.”

7. About the extract, it is
correctto affirm that

a) the verbs “affected” and
“heard” are regular verbs.

b) the expression “would
like” indicates simple future.

c) the adverb “even”
expresses opposition.

d) the possessive pronoun “mine”
indicates third person.

e) the first and second
clauses are in the passive voice.

Text 03

OHMAN,
Jack. The Sacramento Bee. Access on: 20 Nov. 2014.

8. About the relation
between the three texts, it is correct to affirm that